This was done by assigning to Persephone the
character of the corn sown in autumn and sprouting in spring, while
Demeter was left to play the somewhat vague part of the heavy mother
of the corn, who laments its annual disappearance underground, and
rejoices over its reappearance in spring. Thus instead of a regular
succession of divine beings, each living a year and then giving
birth to her successor, the reformed myth exhibits the conception of
two divine and immortal beings, one of whom annually disappears into
and reappears from the ground, while the other has little to do but
to weep and rejoice at the appropriate seasons.
This theory of the double personification of the corn in Greek myth
assumes that both personifications (Demeter and Persephone) are
original. But if we suppose that the Greek myth started with a
single personification, the aftergrowth of a second personification
may perhaps be explained as follows. On looking over the harvest
customs which have been passed under review, it may be noticed that
they involve two distinct conceptions of the corn-spirit.
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